As a conventional electric compressor using an electric motor as a driving source, there is one in which an inverter which controls the electric motor is cooled by using a low temperature refrigerant of a compressor.
According to this structure, the inverter is opposed to a low pressure portion of a body container, the inverter is cooled by an intake refrigerant of the low pressure portion, and the refrigerant which cooled the inverter is introduced into a compression mechanism through a passage which brings the low pressure portion and the body container into communication with each other (e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.2002-364536.
However, the conventional structure has problems that the low pressure portion and the refrigerant passage constituent parts must be provided separately, the compressor is increased in size, the number of parts is increased and the compressor becomes expensive.
The present invention has been accomplished to solve such conventional problems, and it is an object of the invention to provide an electric compressor capable of reducing the compressor in size without increasing the number of parts thereof when the inverter is to be cooled by a refrigerant.
To solve the conventional problems, according to the electric compressor of the invention, a cooling space in an inverter case is disposed at a position opposed to a stationary scroll of a scroll compressor. A refrigerant having low temperature is allowed to flow in and out between the cooling space and the stationary scroll through a seal, thereby cooling an inverter.
With this structure, it is unnecessary to provide a new refrigerant passage constituent part between the compression mechanism and the inverter case, and the number of parts can be reduced. Further, since the intake refrigerant passage is formed in a wasted space in the stationary scroll, the compressor can be reduced in size and weight.